Anup Singh’s Qissa to premiere at Toronto

Anup Singh’s Qissa, a co-production between India/Germany/The Netherlands/France represented by sales agent The Match Factory, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The festival announced today its Contemporary World Cinema lineup featuring the best in world cinema.

Set in post-colonial India, Qissa tells the story of Umber Singh, a Sikh who is forced to flee his village due to ethnic cleansing at the time of partition in 1947. Umber decides to fight fate and builds a new home for his family. When Umber marries his youngest child Kanwar to Neeli, a girl of lower caste, the family is faced with the truth of their identities; as individual ambitions and destinies collide in a struggle with eternity.

The film features Irrfan Khan, Tillotama Shome, Rasika Dugal and Tisca Chopra.

The World of Goopi and Bagha by Shilpa Ranade will be screened in TIFF Kids programme. The film revolves around two wise fools Goopi and Bagha; one loves to sing and the other to play the drum. Despite their acute ineptness, their passion for music knows no bounds. When the villagers cannot bear to listen to them anymore, both are banished to the same forest. Here, Goopi and Bagha encounter each other and their fates become entwined for life. A strong and immediate bond is forged by these two hapless souls in search of connoisseurs of their musical craft.